Trio Elegiaque - Tchaikovsky

Photo / Supplied

Rating: * * * * *

Deutsche Grammophon may be marketing its new collection of Russian Piano Trios as "Lang Lang's first-ever chamber music recording" but, for many, violinist Vadim Repin and cellist Mischa Maisky are just as much of a drawcard.

This coupling of Rachmaninov's Trio Elegiaque and the Tchaikovsky A minor Trio was stage-tested, as it were, when the three men played the pieces at Verbier Festival in July. This CD, recorded in a studio just a month later, makes one hope that the original concert might eventually appear on the Arts Channel schedule.

In the meantime, the CD is more than welcome. From the hushed opening of the Rachmaninov, caught in a pin-drop recording, the very soul of the composer is laid out for us. Everything here is ultra, from the delicacy of pianissimi to the rise and fall of its yearning phrases. Throughout, the musicians reveal a remarkable camaraderie.

The Tchaikovsky, with a first movement a full four minutes longer than the entire Rachmaninov, demands tougher mettle and the trio draw a riveting emotional narrative from it. Repin has spoken of this score being concerto-like in its demands on the players, but one never feels the essential intimacy of the chamber music salon is under threat.

The variations of the second movement are a source of constant wonderment. The 51 seconds of the third are a lighter-than-air flurry with rippling piano and string pizzicato, with Maisky even slipping in a bluesy bent note at one point. The passionate minor song of the fourth is curiously similar to the old Maori ballad Hine e Hine, something the composer could never have foreseen and the players would presumably be unaware of.

The sheer capriciousness of the 10th variation, in Mazurka style, gives Lang Lang free rein to be his usual flamboyant self, while Repin and Maisky bring just the right Slavic colouring to the final minutes of the work.

Willliam Dart